ORIENT, Volume 52, 2017, 93–119 The Use of Muqarnas in the Transitional Zone of Domes in Egyptian Islamic Architecture: From the Fatimid to the End of the Mamluk Era Naoko FUKAMI* The local brick dome technique had already existed when muqarnas started to appear as a feature in the transitional zone of domes in Egyptian architecture. Based on a detailed analysis of the transitional zone of domes in Egypt dating from the Fatimid to the end of the Mamluk era, 126 examples of muqarnas can be classified into four types according to their forms and geometrical features when projected onto a horizontal plane from above. These four types can be sub-divided into fourteen sub-types. Based on a morphological classification, six stylistic periods are identified as follows: The first period is from the 1050s to the 1230s, when the vernacular technique of the brick dome might have evolved into the muqarnas with a trefoil arch. The second period is from the 1240s to the 1310s, when a geometric change occurred based on the local tradition of muqarnas using multi-foil arches. The third period is from the 1320s to the 1360s, when the influence of stonemuqarnas from Syria became evident. The fourth period is from the 1370s to the 1400s, when the local development of muqarnas based on corbeling and the multi-foil arch was preferred. The fifth period is from the 1410s to the 1450s, when the trend of the fourth period was promoted and innovations were made. The sixth and final period is from the 1460s to the 1510s, when the complete form based on the local tradition appeared. Through this analysis of the use of muqarnas in the transitional zone, it is clear that foreign influences were at some points important to their development. However, adopting, compromising and subliming these influences with local tradition or aesthetics constituted the major way in which the style and use of muqarnas in domes evolved in Egypt from the eleventh to early sixteenth century. Keywords: muqarnas, Egypt, vaulting, corbeling, transitional-zone I. Introduction Muqarnas is a corbeling technique, also known as stalactite or honeycomb vaulting, that was developed and refined in Islamic architecture. The etymology of muqarnas is not clear and several explanations have been put forward (see for example, Tabbaa 1985, 61; Bloom 1988, 27; Behrens-Abouseif 1993, 501; Necipoǧlu and al-Asad 1995, 349–350). Generally speaking, the muqarnas shape was formed when the requirement to bend a structural arch was incorporated into the lamination of the decorative facet (Fukami 1998, 267–271). The corbel decoration existed before Islam, for example in the cornice of ancient Egyptian and Greek architecture from the pre-Christian era. However, from the existing examples, the “bending” of structural arches first appeared in Islamic architecture in the tenth century, as evidenced in the Samanid tomb in Bukhara and the Jurjīr mosque in Isfahan. In the former this technique was applied at a squinch while in * Director, Research Station, Cairo, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science © 2017 The Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan the latter it appeared at both ends of a semi-dome. In both cases, there are curved facets lined by a half arch bending at right angles. Following the appearance of these examples, many curved facets were arranged horizontally and vertically to form muqarnas, and were introduced in various places from Andalucía to Central Asia. Muqarnas then evolved and developed predominantly in Islamic architecture and became the technique that symbolized “Islamic-ness” just as the Arabic language in which the Qurʾān was written became synonymous with Islam. On the other hand, muqarnas also developed into local types based on the architectural tradition of each area. Egypt can be regarded as a prominent area with respect to the development of muqarnas (Fukami 1998). From the eleventh century onward muqarnas can be seen in Egypt in the cornices of minarets, niches of façades and transitional zone of domes (Bloom 1988). Subsequently, the most common way of using muqarnas in Egypt became in the transitional zone of domes and in the semi-dome at entrances to mosques and tombs. This article focuses on muqarnas applied in the transitional zone of domes from the mid-eleventh century to the early sixteenth century, with the purpose of describing the evolution in their shapes. II. Prior Studies Following K. A. C. Creswell’s seminal work in the 1950s on Muslim architecture in Egypt (Creswell 1952; 1959), there were many further studies on Cairene architecture. As regards the domes that were constructed before the end of the Mamluk era, many studies discuss their outer appearance (see for example, Kessler 1976; Ciprani 2005; Behrens-Abouseif 2007, 80–84; Wahby and Montasser 2012), but rarely their inner vaulting. Creswell concluded that the trefoil squinch arch of the mid-eleventh century seen in Aswān tombs was local in its technique and that its development had no relation with the Persian dome technique (Creswell 1952, 251–253). In his work, he described the detail of the transitional zone of the domes in Egypt, but his research was limited to a comparison with examples in other areas and covered only those constructed until the 1330s (Creswell 1952; 1959). Some years later, Laila ʿAlī Ibrāhīm analyzed the transitional zone not only in terms of its outer appearance, but also its inner vaulting, and she expanded Creswell’s work to encompass the Mamluk era (Ibrāhīm 1975). Yet, her description of the inner transitional zone was still not comprehensive and there was a lack of continuity between the Fatimid period and thereafter. Moreover, she looked at the transformation in style only from a vertical perspective and regarded any exception as a special example. However, these exceptions should be discussed in the context of the development of muqarnas, and also, the structural methods, the materials of construction, and the influence of examples from other areas must be considered. Hence it is necessary to reconsider the whole history of muqarnas in the transitional zone of domes in Egypt through detailed morphological analyses that pay attention to these aspects. In previous studies such as those mentioned above, the terms squinch and pendentive were used although they are the terms coined by historians of Western architecture to explain the transitional zones and the modeling methods employed to construct a spherical dome on arches above a square room (Jones 1972; Mainstone 1973). However, as the complexity of vaulting developed, the whole transitional zone came to support the dome instead of just the modeled arches. So it is 94 ORIENT The Use of Muqarnas in the Transitional Zone of Domes in Egyptian Islamic Architecture actually quite difficult to explain this development using only these particular architectural terms such as squinch and pendentive. In addition, in previous studies, an understanding of the original significance of muqarnas, that is corbeling, was lacking. It is important to examine the structural methods employed and the techniques of construction carefully in order to clarify the development of the transitional zone in Egypt. III. Typology of Examples As mentioned, this article focuses only on the transitional zone of domes, and for this purpose 126 examples1 of muqarnas were collected from a review of previous studies and a field survey and then indexed in chronological order2 together with their morphological characteristics (Table 1). As a result of this process, it was possible to group the examples into four types according to their formation. The classification indexes for these types were as follows: 1) the formation of muqarnas facets from the base (lowest part) to the top (under the dome or drum) of the transitional zone; 2) the geometrical feature of muqarnas when projected onto a horizontal plane from above; 3) the shape of the encircling four walls of the room. By modeling the corbeling of half arches, muqarnas can be shown as an assemblage of curved facets and flat facets. There are four types of curved facet (Fig. 1) and two types of flat facet (Fernandez-Puertas 1993; Fukami 1998, 12–13; Hoeven and Veen 2010, 6–7). The former are petal, fan, semi-tunnel and double-arch while the latter are horizontal and vertical. fan petal semi-tunnel double-arch Fig. 1: The Four Types of Curved Facet 1 First, examples of the muqarnas transitional zone in domes that were constructed up to and including the Mamluk era were collected from previous studies. Second, existing domes that were constructed up to and including the Mamluk era (Comité 1951; Warner 2005) were examined by the author, and for these examples, photos were obtained from the Ministry of Antiquities of Egypt and a field survey was done. However, it was not possible to enter four of these domes, so those four were excluded from the analysis. The domes in question are Qubbat al-Wazīr (fourteenth century, No. 84), the tomb of Rajab al-Shīrāzī (1379, No. 476), the mosque of Bardbak (Umm al-Ghulām, 1460, No. 25, the dome no longer exists but a transitional zone does), and the tomb of Timurbāy al-Ḥusaynī (sixteenth century, No. 161, the dome no longer exists but a transitional zone does). The monument numbers used in this article are those in Comité 1951 unless indicated. 2 To determine the construction date of each muqarnas is difficult where the building does not have a construction date and where some reconstruction work has been done later. Therefore, this article adopts the dates proposed in previous studies (mainly the studies by Comité 1951; Creswell 1952 and 1959; Meinecke 1992, vol. 1; Warner 2005; Behrens- Abouseif 2007) (see Table 1). Vol. LII 2017 95 96 Table 1: List of Muqarnas Examples in Egypt Monument numbers in (2) Number of petal facets in each layer previous studies Drum (1) Wall Diagonal Behrens- Monument Date Material Type Layers shape Comité Meinecke arch arch (3) Abouseif 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10111213 1951 1992 2007 Tomb at Aswān ca.